The Sandman Cometh
by Supernatural Fan 9
Summary: Sam and Dean investigate a demon who can control and manipulate dreams.
1. Chapter 1

**The Sandman Cometh**

The sun is just beginning to rise over the horizon, casting a reddish-orange glow across the sky. Several trees stand tall on either side of a newly paved road. These tall, whispering, observers sway back and forth ominously as a ghostly wind sweeps through the land taking red, orange, and yellow leaves and blowing them across the road creating a collage of color which looks almost like a make-shift wall. The wind is king here, as it pushes and pulls more and more leaves across the road. The wall of leaves expands. Now the wind is getting stronger and stronger; it's starting to pull leaves from the ground, even damp leaves which had fallen from above long ago are picked up and pulled back to life out of the pit they found themselves in. The wind begins to create its biggest leaf wall yet when a low rumble spreads throughout the land, echoing off the trees, and growing louder and louder. Suddenly a shiny black car bursts through the wall of leaves as it speeds along into the sunrise, a trail of leaves following closely behind.

"Wake up Sammy" Dean says as he shakes him a little.

Sam sits up and rubs his eyes, "Where are we?"

"Brazil, Indiana." Dean hands Sam a dreamcatcher. "And this is our next job"

"A dreamcatcher? Come on Dean, you gave me one of these when we were kids—"

"—And it worked, didn't it?" Dean interrupted.

Sam didn't reply.

"So, what are we doing? Trying to cure some kid of a nightmare or something? We're just going to walk in there a give the kid a dreamcatcher."

"If that works, then hell yeah." Dean snaps.

"What do you mean, if that works? What are we really dealing with here Dean?"

"We're here!"

Dean pulls into the driveway of a small two-story home surrounded by nothing but trees and cornfields. He pops the trunk and grabs the colt. He hides it in his inner jacket pocket.

"No, just leave the colt in the car Dean we can't afford for it to get stolen again. We've been through this."

"It'll be fine Sammy, we'll go inside--pop a demon—and then I'll have no problem putting the colt back in the trunk alright!"

"Pop a demon? So this isn't just about a kid having nightmares then! What are you getting us into here Dean?"

Dean knocks on the door.

"We're about to find out"

Thanks for reading. Check back for what happens next.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple minutes later, the door swings open to reveal a man in his late 50's with dark circles under his eyes and a nasty case of bed hair.

"Please, whatever you're selling, I'm not interested." The man said. "I'm very tired; I haven't been able to sleep for weeks"

"Listen sir." Dean said "My name is Dean and this is Sam"

Dean and Sam pull out their badges.

"We're agents with the FBI; may we come in and ask you a few questions?"

"Now wait a minute here!" The man interjects. "Your partner's badge says he's with the health department."

Sam looks at Dean.

"—No, no you're right!" Dean quickly interrupts, "he IS with the health department. I'm the one with the FBI. You must have misheard me."

"Oh" the man said as he put his glasses back into his breast pocket. "Well, come on in then."

"The health department?" Dean says in a whisper

"FBI?" Sam replies.

The two shake their heads in disgust, and enter the living room of the old house behind the man.

"Please, have a seat" the man says.

Sam begins asking the old man some questions.

Dean explores the house.

"Have you tried taking sleeping pills?" Sam asks.

Dean opens the door to the study—Books, papers, nothing interesting.

"It's not that I can't sleep, it's that I don't want to." The man says.

"Why?" Sam asks.

"Nightmares. Every night they seem to get a little worse and they're so real. I don't think the old ticker can take another scare. They say dyin in your sleep aint nothin to be afraid of but I just don't wanna go like that. Not in one of those dreams.

Dean opens the door to the Kitchen, checks the fridge—Just a bunch of applesauce.

"What's your partner doing?" The man asks.

"He's checking the house for things that could be causing you to have bad dreams" Sam replies.

"Is that something the FBI typically investigate?"

Sam pauses a moment. This was going to be a hard one to answer.

Dean makes his way upstairs—there are four bedrooms up here, he goes to the one with the door shut.

Sam takes a deep breath and begins his explanation: "During sleep, sounds such as footsteps and whisperings can be incorporated into your dreams as something bad. Sometimes people who have nightmares a lot are actually dealing with children playing pranks on them, such as rapping on the windows or on the walls, moving stuff around by invisi-strings, or letting off stink bombs that smell like rotten eggs. Of course you wouldn't know if these things were happening while you were asleep but have you noticed any of these while awake?" Sam asks.

"About 3 months ago, I heard knocking on the walls in my bedroom, but nothing since then." The man says

Meanwhile, Dean notices a piece of cloth wedged in the keyhole of the door upstairs. This was an old fashioned door lock, just like that first one Dean picked with his father when he was a kid. Keyholes like this took a skeleton key, and they were the easiest to pick, but why this old man would wedge a piece of cloth in the keyhole made Dean wonder. Was it privacy the man was worried about? Couldn't be, he was living alone. Maybe he was just trying to keep warm air in his room at night; if this was his room.

Dean had to know, so he reached out to turn the doorknob, but before he had touched it Sam appeared by his side.

"I thought we were going to be helping a kid here, that guy downstairs is over 50 years old!" Sam said.

"I never said we would be helping a kid on this job. You assumed that. And so what, he needs our help and we're going to help him"

Dean reaches to the doorknob when it suddenly starts to turn by itself.

"Looks like we got the right room" Sam says.

Sam and Dean look at each other as the door slowly creaks open to reveal a pair of female eyes gazing out at them from the darkness.

Thanks for reading. Check back tomorrow for what happens next.


	3. Chapter 3

Dean turns on the lights to reveal a beautiful young woman in her 20's with long blonde hair.

"Who are you guys?" The girl said.

But before they had a chance to answer they heard the sound of tired footsteps coming from down the hall.

"I see you've met my daughter, Kate. Are you done with your investigation?"

"Well, there are a few areas that—"Dean began

"—we're all finished here, sir," Sam interrupted, "Thank you for your time, and we'll get back to you when we get any new information."

Dean places the colt back into the trunk of the car.

"Why do you always have to do that?" Dean asks.

"What?" Sam says, confused.

"Every time, I make a comment that is even remotely—"

"—Stupid?" Sam offers. "You use those one-liners all the time Dean, it's frustrating."

"I don't do 'em all the time"

Dean and Sam get into the car.

"Just last week, when we were hunting that ghost in Bridgeton, what did you say before burning the bones..."

Dean reluctantly answers, "I said…'Go back to hell'"

"See" Sam points.

"Maybe you're right, maybe my character does depend a lot on one liners, and maybe that does get old after a while—"

"—Of course it does!"

"But at least I've got a cool car" Dean says, as he slams the car into gear, spinning the tires, sending them speeding off into the night.

"Smart ass" Sam says with a laugh.

Thanks for reading. Check back next week for updates


	4. Chapter 4

INTERIOR CAFÉ —AFTERNOON

"So, it's not a spirit…" Sam says, typing on his laptop. "He didn't smell sulfur, nor did he see objects flying around."

"But he did hear something though, a knocking, right?" Dean says.

The waitress, an elderly lady with a genuine smile, comes by with Dean's biscuits and gravy and Sam's orange juice.

"You sure you don't want anything to eat honey" The waitress said.

"Maybe later." Sam replied. He was so busy on his computer that he didn't even bother to look up and make eye contact.

Dean began to suspect something was going on with Sam and for the quickest of moments he actually considered Sam might be looking at porn, but then he came back to reality.

Dean opened the small container of gravy and began pouring it on the biscuit.

"Is it just me or have the servings of biscuits and gravy gotten smaller, I mean technically this is only 'a biscuit and some gravy' not 'biscuits and gravy'."

"It's a poor economy right now Dean, what do you expect?"

"So, he heard knocking…he's been having nightmares every night…what did you find around the house?" Sam says, finally glancing up from the laptop screen.

"You mean, besides the hot girl upstairs?"

"Yes, besides her"

"Not much, the only thing I found was the keyhole stuffed with cloth."

"Yeah, that is odd, but I can't find anything about it being tied to the supernatural."

"Maybe there's something in Dad's book about it."

EXTERIOR CAFÉ--AFTERNOON—A LITTLE LATER

Dean opens the door and grabs his Dad's book from behind Sam's seat. He flips through the pages and eureka! On page 7 he finds what he's looking for…it turns out it IS a demon but one Sam and Dean had never heard of before. A nightmare demon. (CHECK JOHN WINCHESTER'S BOOK FOR YOURSELF, PAGE 7, TO SEE A PICTURE, GO TO WARNER BROTHERS SUPERNATURAL WEBPAGE)

Dean is reading the book, when he notices a middle aged man staring at him as he walks by.

Asshole! Dean thought.

INTERIOR CAFÉ—AFTERNOON IS STARTING TO CHANGE TO EVENING

Door opens and Sam enters.

"I found it" Dean says, as he lays the book open in front of Sam.

"A nightmare demon?" Sam says, confused. "But it's so…"

"…Small…I know" Dean says. "but that doesn't mean it will be easy to kill"

"Why is it sitting on her chest like that?"

"According to the lore, their weight on your chest is what causes you to feel out of breath after you've just had a nightmare."

The waitress comes by and buses the table. "That man over there would like to talk to you " She says to Dean.

"Do you know that guy?" Sam says.

"I saw him in the parking lot…"

"Cop?"

Dean nods.

"Let's hit the road Sammy, we gotta demon to kill!"

Thanks for reading! Check back for updates.


	5. Chapter 5

This is the penultimate chapter of "The Sandman Cometh." Only one chapter to go. Thank you all for reading.

EXTERIOR-- TWO STORY HOUSE—NIGHT

Dean turns the ignition to "off" and the car glides smoothly into the driveway of the old man's house.

"So how are we going to kill this thing Dean?"

The two get out of the car and Dean opens the trunk.

"Same way we kill anything we don't know how to kill"

Dean withdraws the colt from a box and loads it.

Sam knocks, and the door opens to reveal… The blonde haired hottie they discovered upstairs the night before.

"Where's your dad?" Dean says as he enters and looks around.

INTERIOR—TWO STORY HOUSE—CONTINUOUS

"Dead" the girl says, expressionless.

Sam and Dean look at each other.

"Heart attack" She continued. "he had been having really bad nightmares, I guess his heart just couldn't take it"

Sam places his hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry for your loss" he says, with genuine concern.

Dean rolls his eyes, "Come on Sam, we need to find this demon—"

The girl gives Dean a suspicious look.

"—I mean, Sam and I suspect there may have been pranksters involved…people who act like some real demons."

Dean continues off upstairs realizing that he just completely exposed their whole operation in one short sentence.

Sam and the girl sit down and talk as Dean, once again, starts investigating the house but he comes to the same conclusion. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the cloth in the keyhole.

_How are we going to find this thing?_ Dean thought.

Dean was on his way back downstairs when he thought of checking the basement."

"Where is your basement?" Dean asked, as he reached the main floor again.

"Yeah, there is a door in the kitchen" the girl replied

As Dean began to walk off he could hear Sam start talking again in the background.

"So, losing your father at this time in your life, that must have been very difficult for you."

A short pause, and then the girl replied, "Well, yes and no."

Dean marched back into the room.

"Mind lending me a hand with the investigation Sam!"

"I'm kinda in the middle of something here"

"Yeah, so am I!"

INT. BASEMENT—CONTINUOUS

"Something isn't right about that girl upstairs Dean"

Dean flips on his flashlight and hands a spare one to Sam who does the same.

"Yeah, she just lost her father"

Sam and Dean continue down the stone steps to the cold, foul smelling, basement.

"…And she doesn't seem genuinely affected by it at all."

A shadow darts across the room, too small to be a person, but the perfect size to be the nightmare demon they were looking for.

Sam throws some salt in the direction he saw the shadow go. Nothing happens.

"Probably just a raccoon or something." Dean says

They continue their raid of the basement. They find wooden planks, small amounts of coal, a furnace, and some tools but nothing too out of the ordinary.

"There's nothing down here Dean, that's what I've been trying to tell you. That girl upstairs—"

"—Why are you so set against her Sam? She just lost her father of course she is going to act a little "off"?"

Sam and Dean begin to make their way back over to the stairs leading out of the basement.

"Remember when Dad died?" Sam began "Remember how we felt?"

"People express pain in different ways Sammy. What are you trying to say that she is—"

The basement door suddenly slams shut.

"—The nightmare demon" Sam finished.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey all! Thanks for reading. I was not able to make this the last chapter like I wanted to. It looks like the next chapter will actually be the last. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Sam and Dean grab a wooden log and ram the door with it….Doesn't budge an inch. They go downstairs for more logs and come back up with six which they group together in a tight circular formation. They swing the logs back and then smash them into the door with all their might.

"Sonofabitch!" Dean yells, as he drops the logs to the floor.

"What is it!"

"Door must have a spell on it or something, it didn't budge an inch."

MEANWHILE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR…

The girl suspected of being the nightdemon pushes the kitchen table against the basement door.

"That should hold them for a little while" She says. A smile crosses her face.

She grabs her keys and heads out the door.

BACK IN THE BASEMENT…

The sound of a car engine echoes off the walls.

"That bitch!" Sam starts kicking and ramming the door.

Dean heads back down the stairs.

"You're just giving up then?" Sam yells.

"We're not getting outta here Sammy, we might as well make ourselves comfortable for tonight."

Dean finds some old clothes inside a couple plastic totes so he lays them down and starts to make a "bed" the best he can.

Sam takes out his cell phone, flips it open and…no signal. He finds Dean in an adjacent room laying down on the clothes.

"You're not really thinking about sleeping down here…"

Dean uses some of the extra clothes from the totes to cover up with.

"If the hot chick that locked us in here really is the nightmare demon, she's gone now; Sleeping should be safe."

"And if she calls the cops?"

"Then we'll just break out, there's no point in trying to change the unchangeable."

"Fine. I'll stay up and listen for approaching cars. Then tomorrow we'll try to find another way out of here."

INTERIOR POLICE STATION—NIGHT

The suspected nightmare demon enters the station.

"I need to speak to Officer Ray"

The secretary presses a button on the telephone, "Officer Ray, there is someone here to see you."

"Send her back"

As she enters his office and sits at his desk we see that this man looks familiar. In fact, it is the same man who was staring at Dean outside the Diner.

BACK IN THE BASEMENT…

Dean is fast asleep and Sam is pacing the floor trying to think of a way out of their present situation. Sam gets an idea and walks up the stairs to the basement door. He gently places his hand on the door and tries to concentrate on moving whatever is blocking it but nothing happens. As Sam gives up and is on his way back downstairs a loud rapping sound emanates from one of the walls in the basement.

Sam runs down the steps to investigate when he begins hearing similar knocking sounds on other walls until every wall in the basement is emanating that same knocking sound. The knocking begins to get louder and louder until Sam can barely hear anything at all. He looked over at Dean and couldn't understand why Dean was still asleep.

Sam grabs the colt from Dean and waits for something to jump out from the darkness but nothing does. The knocking sound stops abruptly and a deafening silence takes over.

_Am I dreaming this?_ Sam wonders. When he was little he used to have dreams in which he was aware that he was dreaming and he would often have trouble finding out how to separate these dreams from reality. One night though Sam discovered that when he was dreaming he couldn't read anything. When he opened a book all he saw were dozens of tiny black smudges.

Sam takes out his cell phone, flips it open, and looks at his list of contacts but all the names were crystal clear so he must be awake.

_Maybe I am having demon blood withdraw?_ Sam thinks _Yea, that can cause hallucinations—that can cause me to hear things._ Sam was beginning to calm down now as he went to check on his older brother one more time.

Dean was still sleeping peacefully amidst the old clothes on the basement floor. It seemed darker over by Dean then it was in the rest of the basement. Perhaps Sam was just imagining things though as is often the case when he is tired. But one spot next to Dean continued to get darker and darker the longer Sam stared at it. Soon a shape began to emerge as the shadow took on the form of a small, gremlin-like creature with bright red eyes.

Sam took out the colt and shot a bullet into the creature's forehead, right between it's tiny red eyes. The creature continued to stare at Sam for a few minutes as a thin layer of black liquid began to flow down its snout.

Dean wakes up and quickly moves away from the demon which becomes nothing more than a puddle of black liquid on the floor.

"What did you do Sam, how did you kill it?"

Sam grinned at Dean as he savored this moment.

"Just a good shot I guess." Sam says as he tucks the colt into his jeans.

Then, suddenly, a light knocking sound comes from a nearby wall. Sam and Dean don't hear it at first, but the knocking grows louder and louder as it fills every inch of the room. A few of the basement walls start shaking slightly. Suddenly, a giant hole bursts forth from the ground as a large, black shadowy figure emerges from below. The shadow begins to take a human-like form. The shadow figure has no face or clear features. And it struggles forward as a portion of the ceiling collapses and a bright light slams into the figure from above. The figure grows larger and seems to get stronger as it moves toward Sam and Dean.

"What the hell is that thing?" Sam yells.

Dean just shakes his head.

The figure pounds a fist through one of the basement walls and the house begins to collapse.

"Quick Sammy, we gotta get outta this place!" Sam and Dean begin to run through the newly formed hole in the wall as the basement begins to crack and fall apart. Sam and Dean run from the house as fast as they can as it falls in, erupting into a pile of flame and dust. Just when they think they are in the clear, the figure appears before them and a cloud of dark sand engulfs them, making it impossible to see.

A few minutes later, the sand cloud disappears and Sam and Dean get to their feet. It's now early morning and the sun is beginning to rise over the horizon.

"Is it dead?"

Dean shakes his head, "Whatever it is, it's still out there."

Sam and Dean get into the car.

"So this is how it ends? With that monster still out there?" Sam asks.

"Something tells me were just getting started"

Dean puts the car into drive and they head into the sunlight.

INT. CAFÉ—MORNING

Sam and Dean sit at their usual table.

"So that hottie wasn't really the night demon then…" Dean says.

"no, she wasn't"

"Where do you think she went?"

"Probably found out that you weren't with the FBI and went to the police" Sam shakes his head, "don't you get enough girls anyways?"

Dean shrugs.

He looks around the Café for women when he notices that Sam is frozen in disbelief, staring at something.

Dean turns around to see the girl Sam thought was the night demon standing right behind him.

"Hey Sammy, check it out, what are the odds?" Dean laughs and starts talking to her.

Sam picks up a menu from the table and flips it open. There were no words on the pages, no pictures of food items…only the black smudges of a bad dream.

Sam shuts the menu and gets up from the table.

"Where are you going Sammy?"

"It's time for us to wake up Dean"

Dean gets up from his table as the girl by his side vanishes.

"So, this was all just a dream…"

"Not all of it. Come on Dean, we got a demon to hunt!"


	7. Chapter 7

Sam and Dean wake up in a field of grass with a heavy layer of smoke and ash hanging right above them. As they get up they notice a tall figure standing before them. Sam takes out the colt and fires. A bullet tears through the creature, scattering sand across the road behind it and causing the creature to stumble slightly before recovering. Sam fires again, the bullet piercing the creature's chest and popping out the other side. No effect.

"I don't think we'll be able to kill this thing Dean."

"Maybe I can help" Says a voice from behind.

Sam and Dean turn around to see…. the cop from the diner!

"You must be dreaming! You're not going to be able to kill that thing with an ordinary gun." Dean and Sam grab the man, but he resists, so they continue to run away from the creature.

Before they could get any real distance though a bright, white light burst forth from behind them. Sam and Dean stop and turn around. Bright rays of golden light are shooting from the cops hands into the creature and the shadowy figure starts to turn a bright orange-red color as it becomes hotter and hotter. When the light fades to darkness, Sam and Dean notices the creature is no longer mobile. They get close to it and see that it has become a statue. It's arms are positioned outward in a feeble attempt to protect itself and its head is lowered toward the ground. Even though it is now a statue it still is feature-less. Its face looks like nothing more than a ball of stone with two tiny slits for eyes, it's body is just shapes with no identifying features whatsoever, and it's hands are just solid blocks with no fingers. It looks almost like the Drawing Figures that artists use.

"How did you do this?" Dean asks the cop, "Castiel send you?"

"I'm just a man with an unusual ability" He says.

Sam and Dean watch as the man walks away, disappearing into the night.

"What the hell was that all about?"

Sam shakes his head

"Think we should tail him, find out about his power?"

"No." Sam says, "We only hunt the bad ones, let's let him walk."

They make their way to Dean's car and get in.

Dean turns the ignition and puts the car in gear.

"Maybe I'll finally be able to get some sleep"

They speed off toward the nearest motel.

Merry Christmas Everyone!


End file.
